For the last three decades Gush Shalom, founded by Uri and Sarah Avnery, has been working on weaving together the different perceptions of the Palestinian and Israeli people, in regards of their common history.

As a fundamental basis for a peaceful future, Uri Avnery suggests the vision of a narrative writing of history – a common cultural past. “What narrative means: Looking at what has been happening in the past 120 years. That is: Were the Zionists who came to Palestine strange intruders or did they return to their historical past? Was the war of 1948 a war of liberation by the Israeli people or was it a catastrophe of the Palestinians, in which half of their people was dispelled from its land? What did really happen during this war: Did the Palestinians flee voluntarily, like every Israeli child learns at school, or were they dispelled systematically by the Israeli, like every Palestinian child learns at school? Were the Kibbutzim glorious achievements of a wonderful socialism which called for equality and liberty, or was it a means to dispel the Arabs and to disown the Arabian lands? This is how we can look at virtually any event which happened during those 120 years: from one side and from the other. And you would believe this did not only happen on two different continents, but on two different planets: this little similarity does the Palestinian version have with the Israeli. Both sides – the Israeli and the Palestinian – are not capable of understanding the point of view of their enemy. You must start a dialogue in order to understand that the other side does not act illogically, irrationally, or that it is not crazy, but has its own history, which is absolutely different from ours."

For Uri Avnery and the peace movement Gush Shalom, the bridge of the dialogue is the only way which is realistic and lifelike. Not the concrete wall which separates the country. The peace movement places its emphasis on the millions of possible small steps: Conversations between young people, farmers, workers, house wives, artists, between all those who wish for peace. First achievements are seen in film projects of young Palestinian and Israeli film makers. But the country needs more: Gush Shalom wants to take Palestinians to the memorial Yad Va Shem. It wants to confront Israeli people with the reality of Al-Nakba, which stands for the destruction of the Palestinian culture, for the mass displacement – for the national tragedy of the deprivation of their mother land. And it wants to open the eyes of all those who are just observing the never ending slugfest, paralyzed, and just hope to get away alive – with sometimes unusual actions, but always symbolic.